The prime minister of Bangladesh H.E. Sheikh Hasina Wazed accepting her award at the gala dinner - Global Summit of Women -women from 65 countries attended to partake in ideas for making the world a better and more equal place #gswsydney2018 #photooftheday #womenleaders #sydneyevents #littlesteps

Ferrier Baudet Architects, one of Brisbane’s most experienced Architectural firms, is delighted to announce the appointment of Scott Constable as Associate Director. An exciting move for a practice of 60 years.

Scott was part of the Ferrier Baudet Architects team from 2008 to 2012 before spending six years at some of the city’s largest commercial practices, where he continued to refine his exceptional design and project management skills. He focused on retail and office projects, as well as residential developments - both high rise and boutique - for an impressive range of clients.

“We warmly welcome Scott to our Management team. He brings a wealth of technical design capability and passion for Architecture. He is very experienced and we are looking forward to him assisting us in leading our varied projects throughout Queensland.“ Says Co-Director Catherine Baudet.

“With an accomplished team, great clients and big goals for the future, we look forward to working with Scott and expanding our offering. We now have the capabilitiy to take on more projects and welcome new clients which is exciting”, added Co-Director, Roland Baudet.

The talk of the town is the new Dr Chau Chak Wing building at Sydney’s UTS designed by Frank Gehry (LA). Most of that talk is around what the building looks like . A ‘squashed brown paper bag’ seems to be the prevailing description. Whatever you think, the building is unlike any other because of the brickwork.

Today we speak to Grant from Ferrier Baudet Architects who late last year spoke to the projects bricklayers about the experience of being part of the build…

“So how did they do it?”

Well these days Frank Gehry’s office is well known for its use of digital technologies that enable the forms they produce to be constructed. Paper and card models are made in their office at various scales until they find a shape they ‘like.’ These models are then digitally scanned from which emerge the engineering and construction CAD drawings. In the case of the curved brickwork on the UTS building, it is purely a skin. The bricklayers follow the shape of a steel frame already in place which was manufactured in custom pieces from the CAD drawings and delivered and bolted together on site. It’s actually classic brick veneer construction although the bricklayers (Ray and Peter Favetti) told me that every brick was tied to the frame which is a lot of work compared to a standard veneer wall where about every 50th brick is tied to the inside of a timber or steel frame.

“…And what do you think of the building?”

“Well bricklaying was my first trade so I understand what went on at the wall to get that up. The Favettis would have had their best team on that project – it’s very mentally draining to build work like that day in and day out and a single brick that is not laid correctly would stand out a mile. However, it’s always really enjoyable to build a project that you know has the potential to do something special and the team would have known that on this project. I went down to see the building last December and I’m sure the client and the designers are very pleased with the bricklayers’ skills. He achieved a great result. That was Peter’s last job before retiring and I know he was pretty excited about it all.”